| Siege of Caesarea (260) | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of the Roman-Persian wars | |||||||||
| |||||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||||
| Sassanid Empire | Roman Empire | ||||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||||
|
Shapur I Hormizd I | Demosthenes | ||||||||
| Strength | |||||||||
| Unknown | Unknown | ||||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||||
| Unknown, probably minimal |
Unknown number of soldiers killed Deportation of 400,000 people | ||||||||
The siege of Caesarea by the Sasanians under Shapur I took place following their siege of the Roman city of Antioch in 260 which followed their major victory over the Romans in the Battle of Edessa.
The siege took place during a Sasanian invasion of the Roman east. Caesarea during that time had a large population (about 400,000 inhabitants).
The Sassanids were unable to take the city, and took a Roman as captive and tortured him until he revealed another route they could use. The Sassanids then raided Caesarea during the night, killing every Roman soldier.
According to Percy Sykes, "He [Shapur] captured Caesarea Mazaca, the greatest city in Cappadocia; but probably from the lack of a standing army, again made no attempt to organize and administer, or even to retain, his conquests. He merely killed and ravaged with barbarous severity".[2]